~Old Country Corner~ Getting Ready For Christmas!

What are your traditions? Is there certain foods that you 'have' to fix every year?
I know that I am always expected to fix lots of sweets! LOL I always fix lots of cookies and a Cherry Cream Cheese Wreath.
Tonight will be an the first official Christmas party for me...several women from different churches try to get together once a month and tonight we will be having soup, sandwiches, finger food, and lots of sweets! :) We are exchanging a Christmas ornanment also. It will be intresting to see what everyone picks out....

Later Jet

i made these to take to the party tonight.

Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies

2 Sticks of melted butter
2/3 cups sugar
2 t. water
2 t. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts optional

Mix together melted butter and sugar; add rest of ingredients; mix well.
Roll into balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake 325 for 20 minutes.
Let cool and then roll in powdered sugar.
~Enjoy~

Hi Jet - thanks for starting a new thread!

I do quite a bit of baking for Christmas. Candy Cane Squares, Toffee Bars and Butter Tarts are at the top of my kids list. This year I will also be making Niagara's Baileys Fudge. It is sooo yummy.

We cook a turkey on Christmas Day and I started making Yoopergramma's cranberry recipe with Grand Marnier in it. Mmmmmm

I have gotten so many good recipes off of this site over the last few years.

It is so terribly cold here right now. We are in the -30's. I just can't believe that it would be this bad when we are still in November.

Now that my DD's are adults lol we share lots of Pomegranate Martinis over the holidays too.

Sugar Cookies

2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla

Cream this together.

1 egg
4 t. milk

Add egg and milk to shortening mixture.

Sift together;

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Add flour mixture to the rest of ingredients, mix well.

Drop by teaspoon onto baking sheet.
Bake 375 for 10 to 12 minutes.
Frost with you favorite icing.

Also you can make this cutout cookies by just making it 2 cups of flour instead of 1 1/2 cups of flour.

Peanutbutter Balls

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanutbutter
3 T. butter (softened)

Mix together all of the ingredients and roll into balls.

Melt 1lb. of white or chocolate candy coating; gently dip peanutbutter balls into melted candy coating. Let dry on wax paper; sprinkle with colored sugar. Store in a cool place.

Spinach Dip

1 pkg. of chopped spinach (thawed and drained)
16oz. sour cream
1 cup real mayo
1 pkg. Knor vegetable mix (dry)
1 can chopped water chesnuts (drained)
3 green onion chopped

Mix all ingredients together; chill 2 hours or over night.

You can serve this with crackers or serve in a bread bowl.

Jet thanks for starting a new thread. The Mexican Wedding cookies and the spinach dip are one of my favorites.

I am not thinking about Christmas yet. My DS is still in town and we just went and bought some new floor tiles for my kitchen.That will be a great Christmas gift for me. It is urgently needed.
He will starting to lay the new floor tomorrow,so you all see,there is not any baking at the moment. I think I have to travel to Berny to pick some up. Berny, - 30 , I guess it was C ,would be -22 in F, it is horrible cold. I wanted to move to Canada,because I live snow,but I have to rethink this.

I think I have to go to bed ,it is very late,Renate

Jet, TY for the new topic, great to get us into the Holiday Mood! Let us know how your church event went, sounds like fun. Around Holidays, I always bring an ornament and bottle of wine for a hostess gift.

Berny, I enjoy baking goodies too and make up a few boxes for family & neighbors. Ohh, brrr, no wonder you love to bake: #1, don't have to freeze your purdell outside; #2 nice, warm kitchen, #3 goodies, home-made are best!

Renate, enjoy your new tile floor. Tip: buy "Grout Sealant" and put on the tile grout - it'll protect the grout from absorbing spills.

Christmas Eve: nothing really "traditional," usually what we have a taste for. This year we're having some friends visit from Chicago for Christmas Eve. DH has already brainstormed the menu; as usual, I get to bake.

Christmas Day: usually turkey, stuffing, cranberries - mostly what we've had for Thanksgiving, but no one ever seems to mind!

lydia

This is delicious, a classic, and very easy to make...

LIBBY'S PUMPKIN ROLL WITH CREAM CHEESE FILLING

CAKE

Powdered sugar
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (use Saigon cinn. if you have it)
1/2 tsp. ground cloves*
1/4 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
1 C. granulated sugar
2/3 C. Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 C. chopped walnuts (optional)

FILLING

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1 C. sifted powdered sugar (I don't sift)
6 T. butter or margarine, softened (always use unsalted butter)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 deg. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a clean kitchen towel (not terrycloth) with powdered sugar.

Combine: flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired.

Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla extract in small mxer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake (I do this on top of wax paper). Wrap in pastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired. Makes 10 servings.

*If you don't have ground cloves, or don't like the taste, ground Allspice is a nice substitue.

Lydia's note: if using walnuts, toast in oven for a few minutes, then coarsely chop; don't grind fine.

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cont....

Lydia's funny story about the Pumpkin Roll.....

Sis wanted to make this for her company Christmas buffet. Sis is an Electrical Engineer for multi-national company. Okay, she calls me in tears. She rerolled the completed cake in the towel, so she had the cake, filling & towel inbetween, yumm, lol.

As I was a SAHM and Sis worked full-time and a single Mom of two, I made her a few extra which she picked up after work; all's well that ends well.

lydia

DH travels from time-to-time to Canada, mostly Montreal, Toronto & Winnepeg. He brought me home a few Holiday magazines about 10 years ago, this cookie recipe is excellent and a family favorite.

ORANGE CARDAMOM SABLE COOKIES

Makes 24 cookies

1 C (250 mL) unsalted butter, softened
1 C (250 mL) granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
2 T. (25 mL) grated orange rind
4 tsp. (20 mL) ground cardamom
2 1/3 C (575 mL) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. (2 mL) salt
Coarse decorative sugar

Beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, orange rind and cardamom. Sift flour with salt; stir into butter mixture.

On lightly floured surface, form dough into 2 logs, each about 1 1/4 inches (3 cm.) in diameter. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Working quickly with cool dough; roll logs in coarse sugar. Using a sharp knfe, slice logs 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick; place slices 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate for 20minutes. Bake in 350F (180 C) oven for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden. Let cool on pans on racks for 5 minutes. transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

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I cut each log in half and roll in different colored sugares; the result is very pretty, and perfect for a gift-giving holiday cookie

Woof-woof. One year when DS#2 was in a band Holiday Bake Sale; I went off the "bandwagon" and made these; they sold off in 15 minutes, son #2 and I made triple this recipe later that night, which also went gangbusters. Humpf, and to think he was at first embarrassed to bring these...

HEALTHY DOG TREATS*

2 C. whole-wheat flour
1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1/4 C. cornmeal
1/4 C.. sunflower kernels, finely chopped (I put in blender to grind)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 C. molasses
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 C. milk
2 T. oil

Mix all ingredients, adding more milk if needed to make dough firm. roll out onto a floured surface to 1/2-inch thickness. Use any shape cookie cutter to cut out biscuits, but bone shapes are fun! Bake on ungreased baking sheeta at 350 degrees for 30 min. or until lightly toasted. To make biscuits harder, leave in oven with the heat turned off for an hour or more.

Lydia's note: got a 3-1/4" dog-bone cookie cutter at Walmart. Put six bones in a bag with a ribbon tie & tag - the kid's got $3 for each bag. These are really easy to roll and cut, no fuss at all.

Good Afternoon everyone! :)
We had a good time at the party...there was probably about 35 women there, and a lot of food! :) We played some games to see what ornament you would get..it was a good time.

Lydia- your recipes sound good! except i'm not sure i would try the dog bones! LOL maybe when we get a dog i can try that recipe! :)

Well got to go! Later Jet

Lydia,nobody in this house would mind getting the same dinner for Christams. It is so good. But we have certain dishes we fix for the 24, which have talked about before,but I will repost them later,when I have more time.

We got some stuff for my kitchen floor,which looks like cherry wood. We got a fantastic deal. My DH told me for many days,that he wanted to get those. Now he layed some down and he thinks ,it is to dark,since the kitchen is small. I looked at tiles,but I did not see any I really liked.They all had some funny design and it looked as somebody had spilled something on the floor. I was told,that the wood looking stuff is easier on your feet,if you stand a lot in the kitchen ? One design I liked,but it had blue squares in the middle and blue does not fit in my kitchen. I have lite yellow walls and painted fruit and vegetables on the walls.
My DS will lay the down the material on the kitchen floor. He is in a hurry,because he has to leave soon.

Jet ,I am happy,that you had such a good time at the party. I wished I got go to a cookie exchange.I will see,how things are going here and maybe I can talk some friends into it.

Waving to the rest of you. Renate

Renate- i think that your floor sounds really nice! it always good when you find a bargain! :)

something i forgot earlier was about the pie crust question...i usually make my pie crust bigger so that when they bake and shrink it will be normal size when its done...i don't know what else you can do about it shrinking??

Well have to go again! i need to start making out my Christmas cards....:)
Later Jet